Unearthing Humanity's Past

Lee Berger, National Geographic Explorer in Residence and real-life Indiana Jones with tales of his hominid discoveries, many of which have rewritten the story of palaeoanthropology. (R)

National Geographic Explorer in Residence, Lee Berger, entered the field of palaeoanthropology when there was an infinitesimally tiny chance he would discover anything, while digging around South Africa.

But this real-life Indiana Jones kept bucking the odds.

He kept unearthing previously unseen parts of hominids - the group known as the Great Apes; comprising modern humans, chimpanzees, gorillas and orangutans plus all their immediate ancestors.

First, he found a pair of hominid teeth in southern Africa. Then after a fossil hunting dry spell, his 9-year-old son Matthew found the jawbone of an entirely new hominid species.

A few years later came Lee's most extraordinary discovery yet: a nearly inaccessible cave filled with skeletons of another new hominid species which seemed to be violating all the rules.

The story of what happened in this cave revolutionises what we understand about the origins of our own human species.

This episode of Conversations discusses the origin of human life, archaeology, science, research, caving, adventure, Indiana Jones, human species, evolution, Charles Darwin, theories of evolution, Africa.